Acceptance
by I'll Cover Angel and Collins
Summary: Duncan has accepted what his life is with Mal, he may hate it but it's come to the point that it's all he knows. What would he do without Mal at this point? Duncan often tells Mal he wants to leave, tonight Mal is finally letting him.


Disclaimer: Nada

A/N: **This fic contains unhealty relationship standards, if you have been in a bad relationship that you have struggled to get out of, this is not the fic for you. Read at your own risk! Fic contains stocholm syndrome.**

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It took Duncan 3 long and dreadful months after All-Stars to accept his fate and his place. Mal used every amount of his winnings from the show to bail Duncan out after he immediately broke up with Zoey. Duncan was honestly surprised Mike didn't come back, Mike was the hardest personality for Mal to control. Mal always told Duncan he was his and he would never want for anything. Duncan never really thought it was would happen but it did happen and Mal made Duncan his in every way possible.

Duncan learned not to ask questions about where Mal worked, though he suspected he worked for the mafia or some high end bank robbers. Mal always went to work fairly early in the morning around 4-5am and came home around 6pm. That was good enough for Duncan, Mal brought home the money and as promised, Duncan wanted for nothing.

Mal liked to punish Duncan at the start so he knew his place, with his punishments also came pleasure and rewards when he did what Mal wanted. It wasn't a healthy relationship by any means but it was Duncan and Mal's. At first when Mal brought him to the apartment Duncan tried to escape and that only resulted in being locked in a bedroom while Mal went to work. It didn't help that the bedroom had no bathroom attached so Duncan had to hold it in until Mal got home. That was part of his punishment for attempting to leave and not come back.

Now being 3 months of living there, Mal trusted Duncan to not leave him even though Duncan still thought about it. Duncan decided that living with Mal wasn't the worst thing. Mal would bring him cigarette's weekly and would allow him to go on the porch and to the store. Duncan just had to except he belonged to Mal and in a strange way, Mal also belonged to him.

Duncan knew the routine down to the second at this point. It was basically stupid shit that translated to 'Clean the whole house and the yard and go food shopping' Mal would write down for him to do yard work and be up by 7am even though Duncan wouldn't wake up until 11am at times if Mal wasn't around. If it was a Thursday that meant Mal would leave about $200 on the counter for Duncan to go shopping for food. Mal would allow Duncan to keep the change left over from shopping at time, sort of like an allowance.

As long as Duncan had food on the table and the house was clean to Mal's standard, Duncan had it pretty easy most days. Tonight however was different, It was now 6:23pm and Mal was late. It was days like this that Duncan hated, if he was even one minute late, Mal would yell at him for over an hour or punish him, sometimes both. Duncan already had the food on the table and now he'd have to heat it up again so it would be warm.

"This fucking sucks..." Duncan muttered to himself as he threw the plates in the oven and set it to warm. "This is probably another fucking test to test my patience..."

Duncan sat at the kitchen table and lit up a cigarette, he kept staring at the clock every minute that passed made Duncan more and more annoyed. About 10 minutes with the food warming up in the oven and Duncan on his 3rd cigarette Mal finally came in the house whistling that tune that Duncan always hated and was forever embeded in his head.

"You're late." Duncan sighed and glared at Mal as he walked in the door like nothing was wrong.

"I'm aware of time." Mal chuckled.

"If I was late you'd give me some crap about I'm even one minute late for a flight I'd miss the flight but it's okay for you to show up-" Duncan started to tell him and paused to look at the clock "Show up late by 26 minutes."

"You timed me?" Mal laughed and went to the fridge and grabbed himself a soda. "Why did I have to get this myself? Isn't it your job to have a drink as well as food out for me, Sweetie?"

"I didn't want the soda to get warm and the food to get cold on you, Mal." Duncan told him. "Of course I timed you, you always time me! I learned it from you. I didn't want your soda to get warm, I know you hate it when it does."

"You're right, Sweetie." Mal told Duncan as he shrugged. Duncan still hated being called Sweetie but has become more used to being called that then by his own name. "I don't like it when my drinks are warm. I remember when I first brought you here and you would put one out an hour before I even got home."

"I remember those days." Duncan agreed. Those days were never fun. "Would you like your dinner now, Mal?"

"I would." Mal told Duncan as Duncan went to get the food. Mal followed behind Duncan and wrapped his arms around Duncan's waist. Duncan felt Mal getting hard against him. "Isn't this nice, Wweetie?"

"I'm not happy you showed up late." Duncan told Mal and sighed. "But, I know you want me to say it is so, it's nice."

"I suppose I do owe you an explanation as to why I was late." Mal admitted to Duncan, seeing he was pretty annoyed with him. Normally Mal coudn't care less if Duncan was annoyed especially when he intentionally tried to annoy him. "Look, this time it wasn't on purpose. I got stuck in traffic on the way home."

"You could have fucking called!" Duncan finally snapped at Mal as he grabbed both the plates and slammed them on the table. "I do everything you ask and I rarely talk back to you anymore, in fact I have given up even trying to fucking leave and the only reason I stay here is because you've seemed to tone down your bullshit punishments with me!"

"Which your tantrum just now makes me question if I've been too easy on you." Mal added in as he sat down at the table. "Clearly you're upset, Sweetie so I'll allo-"

"Yeah, I know..." Duncan told him with an eye roll. "You'll allow it because I'm doing what you want and not talking back to you. Talking to you is the same as going and standing in front of any wall and trying to have a conversation."

"Swe-Duncan, I get it." Mal sighed. "Don't you think if I could have had you any other way aside from this that I would have done it? I bailed you out of that hell hole Mclean sent you to knowing very well you never wanted to come here in the first place."

"Then why didn't you let me leave?" Duncan asked Mal in almost a whisper.

"I'm addicted to you." Mal simply told him. "You want the truth? That's it. I could and would do anything to keep you here. Sure, I love the rough sex but I like the fact I can make you fall for me in seconds even if you say you don't have those feelings for me, we both know by now that's not true."

"I've done everything you've asked of me the last few months." Duncan told Mal. "I have given up trying to fucking leave this because I know trying to leave will just ruin the fucked up progress you've made on me and we'll go back to square one and I just can't do that again! I can't spend my days locked in a room because you feel you can't trust me."

"You're right." Mal admitted. "You have done everything I asked with very few complaints, so I'm going to only offer this once. You can sit with me and we can eat dinner like we normally do and pretend this conversation never happened or you can get up right now and walk out and I won't stop you this time."

"Seriously?" Duncan asked Mal, his eyes got wide. "You expect me to believe that you're just going to allow me to get up and leave?"

"Yes." Mal told him. "You can go, Sweetie. You're not a prisoner here and who am I to stop you from going?"

Duncan stood up from the table and thought about it for a second, he walked out of the kitchen and looked back, thinking Mal would stop him like he usually did. He was surprised to see that Mal just sat at the kitchen table. Duncan made it to the front door and has his hand on the door knob, he turned the knob thinking somehow Mal made it so he wouldn't be able to get out. To Duncan's surprise the door opened. Mal hasn't actually had the doors locked on Duncan in a long time but Duncan feeling that this was a trick was surprised it opened for him.

"Duncan, I don't want the door open it's pretty cold out tonight." Mal told him as he took a bite of his dinner. "If you're leaving, can you go and shut the door behind you?"

"You're going to make me leave without my stuff?!" Duncan turned to face Mal again.

"You can pack if you wish." Mal told him. "I think we have a suitcase in the hall closet."

"I'm going to go get a few things." Duncan told Mal with a quick thought in his mind. "No..I'm just gonna go now before you change your mind."

"I'm not changing my mind." Mal informed Duncan. "Do you want me to help you pack? I can help you pack if you want, Duncan."

"Why are you calling me that?" Duncan demanded to know from Mal.

"Calling you what?" Mal asked him as he took a sip of his soda

"Duncan." Duncan told Mal saying his own name. "You only call me by my name if I piss you off! Usually it's 'Sweetie' with you or 'Sweetums' or some other nickname."

"Those are merely pet names for my property." Mal shurgged and let out a chuckle. "If you don't belong to me and have no desire to be here then I feel calling you by your actual name is only appropriate."

"Mal, you're not serious are you?" Duncan asked Mal as he shut the door and took his hand off the door knob.

"About you leaving?" Mal asked as he wrapped the remainder of his food up as well as Duncan's and tossed his soda can in the trash. "Of course I am. You've been with me for awhile now and clearly you don't like being with me or how I do things. No matter how hard I try to keep you here you still want to leave so it ends tonight. I want you to leave."

"You've never been serious about this." Duncan told him. "Mal, please don't make me leave."

"I'm not making you do anything, Duncan." Mal reminded him. "I told you if you wanted to forget about it then you could sit down and eat with me and we could forget about it. The fact you got up and walked to the door tells me you thought about doing it. I'm not going to stop you and I'm not going to tell you that again."

"When I walk out the door, I'm not coming back." Duncan reminded Mal. "I just need you to know that."

"I'm well aware of that." Mal smirked at Duncan. "It seems you're the one who isn't aware that you're not coming back. Would you like me to hold the door open for you since you seem to be unaware of how to leave somewhere."

"We both know you won't allow it." Duncan told Mal trying to play it cool. He wasn't sure he wanted to leave Mal and the life he has grown used to at this point.

"I would and am." Mal firmly told Duncan. "You should know by now when I tell you that you can do something, you can and that when I tell you to do something you will. Have you really not learned anything from me, Duncan?"

"I've learned plenty..." Duncan told Mal, he felt like he had a lump stuck in his throat. "Where do you expect me to go?"

"That is no longer a problem of mine." Mal shrugged. "I've had a long day at work, I'm going to take a shower. When I come back, I expect that you'll be gone."

"Mal..." Duncan said his name. He felt defeated and lost. "I can't go. Please don't make me go...I have nowhere else to go..."

"You're the one who always wants to leave, Duncan." Mal told him as he started to walk up the stairs. "I'm sure you'll figure it out."

"This is it?" Duncan asked Mal. "It's really over between us?"

"You're right." Mal told him taking a few more steps up the stairs. "There was never anything there in the first place and I was selfish for trying to make you stay."

"What if I don't...I don't want it to be over..." Duncan told Mal, having a hard time getting the words out. "Being here made me realize if...if I leave that...well I only have the streets and well...well probably jail and after being on Mclean's stupid show, I...I don't want to be in a real jail..."

"Not sure I understand what you mean, Duncan." Mal told him, finally turning around. "You know I don't do long drawn out, sappy bullshit."

"I want it to be over, but I don't." Duncan sighed and told Mal. "I think I want to stay."

"You want it to be over or you don't, Duncan?" Mal asked him. "You think you want to stay or you do? Be more clear and try it one more time."

"Iwanttostay..." Duncan muttered quickly. Mal heard him, Mal always heard him correctly but needed Duncan to speak clearly.

"If you can't tell me what the fuck you want clearly so I can understand you, there is no point in continuing this conversation." Mal informed him. "It's clearly not that important if you can't say whatever point you're trying to make if you can't bring yourself to speak clearly."

"I said..." Duncan told Mal and took a deep breath. "I want to fucking stay, Mal."

"That's better, Duncan." Mal told Duncan with a smirk. "Now tell me, why do you want to stay?"

"I want to stay here because this is all I know and I live comfortably here." Duncan told Mal even though it killed him to say it. "Mal, please allow me to stay and be your Sweetie."

"Are you going to act like an ungrateful asshole again?" Mal asked Duncan. "If you decide you want to leave again, it's done and you're gone. Do we understand each other?"

"Yes, Mal." Duncan agreed. "I understand and I won't ever want to leave again."

"If you do decide to leave again, I promise you that I will personally make it so you end up in jail." Mal informed Duncan. "If that's the life you wish to live then that's exactly what's going to happen. Think next time before you think of something so reckless and foolish ever again."

"I'm going to take a shower now, it truly has been a long day." Mal smirked at Duncan. "It's been even longer due to your stupidity tonight and has caused me a great deal of stress. I want you to go heat up your food and eat it and then meet me in the bedroom where I expect you to make it up to me after I get out of the shower."

"I will, Mal." Duncan agreed as he went to reheat his own dinner, annoyed at himself that he couldn't bring himself to survive without Mal and hating himself that he has accepted this as his life.

"I'll see you in 30 minutes, Sweetie." Mal smirked at Duncan as he went to take his shower.

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_That's the end of this one! It was pretty tame compared to other Malcan fics that I write. If you're in a relationship like this, tell someone and reach out. This is not okay for a real life situation but for a cartoon, it makes some good writing. Malcan is my weakness these days but I understand that some people may have needed the warning before reading to decide if they needed to. This was honestly the first time I ever felt the need to write a warning and did so in the middle when I saw just how manipulative Mal can be.  
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_I'd like to thank Red for being an amazing friend and actually helping me figuring out an ending to this! I knew Duncan wouldn't leave but I was stuck on how the end of the conversation between them was going to go and he suggested to me about Duncan begging Mal and then I thought that was a great idea but I also thought that since Duncan is used to this life now he should be offended that Mal would just be that willing to allow him to leave even though the way Red and I see it in our head canon is that Mal would never let him leave, it was a mindfuck tactic to make Duncan believe he had his own choices, which if you read TDP you'll see Duncan is basically being groomed into what Mal wants from him. _

_Anyway, you'll see some references to Total Drama Prison in there, I suppose this is a sequel tidbit to it with Duncan and Mal's relationship. I get a LOT of views on my Malcan fics so even if you don't review, I know quite a few of you enjoy this type of fic. Red and I are working on a new chapter for that as well so stay tuned and there are a lot of Malcan lemon smut scenes in TDP if you're really into Malcan so be sure to look up Total Drama Prison under Pepe's Red Eyed Cousin for more! It's smut and insanity and sometimes satire and everyone is slowly going insane. _

_Hope you guys enjoyed this! _


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